Xinjiang China: Government Appointed Imam Slaughtered by Terrorists

According to sources from Xinjiang, China, a government-appointed Imam was allegedly slaughtered by Muslim terrorists living in the region. The murder resulted from an uprising of ongoing strife between two different ethnic groups who live in Xinjiang.

The Uighur, who speak their own language, make up most of the population in Xinjiang, although the Han Chinese people living there are the nationwide majority. Uighur people are an ethnic group that originally came from Turkey and migrated to China over several decades ago.

Recently the Uighur have created political tensions in Xinjiang by calling for more “self-determination.” Moreover, Muslim insurgents are calling themselves an independent nation under the name East Turkestan.

The conflict in Xinjiang rose to dangerous levels beginning on July 26, when three civilians were found dismembered after a vicious dispute between the Han Chinese and Uighur separatists. During a week of clashes, Chinese police forces killed 57 Islamic separatists and 39 civilians were also killed in the disturbing mayhem in Xinjiang. Han Chinese police authorities said terrorists from the Uighur community were also responsible for killing the Chinese Imam, Jume Tahir.

Sources said the death of Imam Tahir led to street protests, and shortly afterwards violence erupted very quickly into a gruesome, deadly battle. Eyewitnesses described the scene as horrifying and some of the worst behavior exhibited by mankind. The aftermath of the fighting left piles of dismembered opponents chopped into pieces by knives and axes.

In Xinjiang, China, a government-appointed Imam was slaughtered by terrorists during an ongoing breakout of deadly violence. In addition, an ambush that started at a Chinese police station during a sneak attack by insurgents was also reported during the clash. According to sources, the battles in Xinjiang lasted almost a week and the final death toll was 96.

The Han Chinese ethnic groups are primarily responsible for initiating strife with the Uighur, who many people say are a peaceful conservative group. There are about 2 million Han Chinese living in Xinjiang and the majority of them are Buddhists or Christians, while nearly 80 percent of the Uighur living in Xinjiang are Muslim.

Sources said the situation became elevated when a street festival was disrupted by domestic fighting. Several domestic attacks between Han Chinese and Uighur ensued before the Xinjiang police forces became involved. The recent battles are related to ethnic disputes, but last year a similar incident took place which also left many Uighurs killed.

In October 2013, there were a total of 100 Uighur civilians killed in a military clash with Xinjiang police forces. Police said Uighur rebels were organizing terrorist operations against Han Chinese people living outside of Xinjiang. They alleged that Uighur separatists were a part of the Turkish Islamic Party, who killed five people in Beijing.

The Xinjiang government was very upset about the murder of recently appointed Tahir, Muslim Imam Leader of the Id Kah mosque in Kashgar. Both Buddhist and Christian communities in Xinjiang have publicly condemned the murder of Imam Tahir, calling it an unholy act against humanity, sources said.

The Uighur are very conservative Muslims, and many of the Uighur women are usually seen wearing a veil that covers their faces completely with the exception of their eyes. The donning of a veil has always been known to create tensions in communities where the religious beliefs are very diverse. Critics suggest it is highly reasonable that these types of incidents may be responsible for many of the ethnic clashes between the Uighur and Han Chinese in Xinjiang.

In Xinjiang, China, a government-appointed Imam was slaughtered by alleged terrorists from the Islamic ethnic group Uighur. Because of the tension surrounding the Xinjiang conflict, the Imam’s murder caused even more unrest between the Han Chinese and Uighur people. Recently in the southernmost part of Xinjiang, nine terrorists suspected as responsible for arranging the murder were shot to death in a corn field in Hotan City as a result, sources said. The public executions of the nine terror suspects occurred within days of the murder of a religious public figure, making Imam Tahir a Muslim martyr in Xinjiang.

2 Responses to "Xinjiang China: Government Appointed Imam Slaughtered by Terrorists"

Michael Schultheiss August 6, 2014 at 5:55 pm

See, here is China’s problem: the contemporary Chinese state is faced with the task of governing a vast inland Eurasian empire in the Himalayan Plateau and in East Turkestan that it *inherited,* ultimately from the Manchurian Qing Dynasty.

East Turkestan has a very long and distinct history in its own right, and although that history has long included important contacts and even deep links with China it can in no sense be regarded as properly and authentically *Chinese.* It is scarcely surprising that in this increasingly interconnected age the Uighur should look beyond their borders and see for themselves the success of other anti-colonial nationalisms in rolling back empires around the world, including in former Soviet Central Asia (though granted, only to a degree).

Realistically, this is probably only the beginning. I predict a very long struggle ahead for the soul of East Turkestan/Xinjiang.

If the West and its leaders, especially in Europe and America, didn’t dislike Muslims of any kind there would be widespread protests against China’s ethnic cleansing program to wipe out the Muslim Uighur people of Xinjiang.